Hi all, I have recently received a new Viao as part of an insurance claim. The latop is great, good spec and all the bells and whistles. But the battery does not last at all. Now
I don't expect it to last that long being a large screen and everything, but about 45 mins seems a bit low. Has anyone any ideas? 
Many thanks
GSRKing.
PS. The model is VGN-AR31M
Hi GSRKing and welcome to Club Vaio.
Sony say Up to 01:25 with VAIO Optimized (Brightness Level 5) and everything else turned off - so about half of that is not unusual.
Have you got the Power Management set to 'Battery Optimised'? Click on the battery icon in the system tray and have a look!
Hi, thanks for the reply (very quick, impressed). The battery icon says Vaio Optimized. First thing I checked. I have turned the brightness down. This battery life is with the laptop just idle, doing nothing apart from the screensaver.
Thanks
GSRKing.
PS. I'm not a normal user, I provide tech support for a antivirus company, including forum replies and also i'm a qualified hardware engineer. Just thought i would mention so if you need me to check things then you can in a 'techie' language!! 
Hardware engineer eh? brilliant. Can I ask you about my ABIT AN8 64 bit mobo. It won't boot up and the digital display gives a number 50 error code or 'USB won't initialize'. I've set the jumpers to disable and use a ps2 plug keyboard but all i see is a spark inside the rear usb hub then the boot screen hangs with 50 error code. its like the usb is shorting but ant ideas?
Hi, I think it maybe broke (to use a technical term!!) If you are seeing sparks then not a good sign. You could try resettinge the bios to default, but of course you maybe pulling my leg due to my last post... 
Cheers GSRKing.
I'm sure you have turned everything off that you don't need - bluetooth, wireless etc.
Unfortunately, I suspect it is near to normal for such a desktop replacement machine. The battery in my AR31S only lasts about 25 minutes if you set the processor to 'performance' and play a Blu-Ray movie although I would expect an hour on an Optimised setting.
I think I would telephone Sony Vaio-Link Support as they will have a diagnostic you can run to see if the battery is failty or has an abnormally high rate of discharge.
http://support.vaio.sony.co.uk/contacts/contacts.asp?site=voe_en_GB_cons&tp=vaio&cm=phone&cc=UK
